Organisational resilience through crisis strategic planning: a study of Swedish textile SMEs in financial crises of 2007-2011

Abstract

Global financial crises of 2007–2011 have created tremendous impact on Swedish organisations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In such a context, study of organisational resilience, to survive and thrive, becomes increasingly significant. Key to economic resilience is upheld by crisis management (CM), business continuity planning (BCP) and growth perspectives. Thus crisis strategic planning (CSP) becomes fundamental in underpinning resilience. The study categorises resilient and less resilient SMEs in terms of their financial performance, and identifies what strategies differentiate them. Resilient firms showed better short-term CM through higher operational flexibility, while the less resilient firms lacked strategic readiness. Resilient firms showed more long-term strategies through BCP and growth strategies through market penetration, diversification and transformational initiatives. Multi-strategic initiatives help to develop CSP model, categorising firms along different resilience types, characterised by low and high degrees of planning and adaptation, respectively. Resilient Swedish SMEs mostly showed planned resilience in financial crises.